by Jack Gibby
Chapter Eight
Missy came bounding down the stairs in her parents’ home. She had seen her father’s car pull into the driveway, and she knew this would be an opportune time to talk to him. While she had tried to meet with him at the winery, she hadn’t been able to pin him down. But, conveniently, still living at home, she had another avenue of access to him that was much easier than the office.
As she came into the kitchen with a smile on her face, that smile slowly faded when she saw that not only had her father walked in, but also her brother. Leo, named for their grandfather, was like a miniature version of their father. It was obvious that Michael was grooming Leo to eventually take over, and while Missy and Leo did have a good relationship, it always felt a little lopsided to Missy. She never quite felt like she fit in to the family.
“Sissy Missy,” said Leo with a grin, stepping closer. He wrapped a single arm around her and hugged her. “How’s tricks?”
“Yeah, not bad, Leo,” she said, enduring the hug and putting an arm around him as well. “Haven’t seen you around the winery since I started.”
“Leo’s been busy with the vintners,” said Michael, smiling at his two children. “Hasn’t been in the office much lately.”
“True,” said Leo. “Pop’s got me moving barrels. One at a time, on my back.” Michael laughed.
“That’s how I started,” said Michael. “And that’s how you learn the business.”
“We can’t all get cushy desk jobs right out of the gate,” Leo teased. Missy grinned.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t say it’s cushy,” said Missy. “You seen my office? Daddy’s got me in a warehouse closet.” Leo laughed.
“Least you get to sit,” said Leo. “My chair is a hi-lo.”
“Yeah, you’ve both got it so bad,” said Michael. “I’m just glad Missy finally came around and joined the family business. I was worried about you for a while, sweetheart. But I’m glad you came to your senses. We need all the Marlowes we can muster.”
“Listen,” said Missy, leaning into the counter and becoming a bit demure. “Daddy, I’ve got a question for you. Leo, maybe you’ve got some insight.” Michael and Leo looked at each other and shrugged.
“Go ahead, sweetie,” said Michael.
“You know, I was at Chateau W. Laurent the other day,” Missy began. Michael rolled his eyes when she said the name. “Trying to reach out to them to join the cause and all that.”
“Right,” said Michael. “I wouldn’t expect too much out of them.”
“Sure,” said Missy. “My point is, I’m still hung up on what happened to me. The shooting I witnessed. That guy, John Barnaby, he was a lawyer and he worked with Laurent in the purchasing of another winery on Old Mission. Then he ends up dead. It’s all just so peculiar. Daddy, did you know John Barnaby?”
“Did I know him?” Michael repeated, looking as though the question were silly. “I’m sure our paths crossed before, but I didn’t know the guy personally. We got our own real estate guys.”
“Leo?” asked Missy. “You ever heard of him?”
“I don’t think so,” said Leo with a shrug.
“I’m just trying to figure out why this guy got shot,” admitted Missy. “I think somebody at Laurent is the culprit and I want to find out why.”
“Babe,” said Michael, moving closer to his daughter and putting his arm around her. “I know you had a traumatic experience and I know it’s been hard on you. But it’s time to move past it. You’re safe, everything’s fine, and now you’re where you’re supposed to be. You’re working with your family. This was a blessing in disguise for you.”
“I don’t know,” said Missy in confusion.
“Trust me on this,” said Michael. “I’m your father, I love you, and I want you to succeed. With both my children working for me, I know I can’t fail.” Michael smiled, looking between his children with pride.
“I’m sure the police are handling it,” said Leo. “They’ll get the guy. They’ll figure it out. It’s all probably unrelated to Laurent. Probably some domestic dispute or something. Something personal.”
“Maybe,” said Missy.
“If you’re worried,” said Michael. “I will personally put in a call to the police station and let them know my concern. They’ll take my call and take it seriously. You want me to do that, Missy?”
“No,” said Missy. “That’s all right.”
“Well, then please do me a personal favor and try to move past this,” said Michael. “The important thing is that you’re unharmed and everything is getting back to normal. I don’t want you to worry about this anymore. I want you to focus on your job. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“Good,” said Michael. She smiled at his daughter and kissed her on the forehead. “I’d like to see you at the winery a lot more. And I’d like you to spend more time with Jake Green. He’s our point man with Cherry City and he’s going to play a key role once we get our national distribution moving at full-steam. I want Emperor wines in every big box store in this country. With the two of you by my side, with more consolidation of the wineries here on the peninsulas, I think this family could become incredibly wealthy. But I need you both to cooperate. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” both children said in unison.
“Thank you,” said Michael. He smiled. “Leo, take down a bottle of the cabernet franc from the rack over there and let’s all share a glass.”
“Of course,” said Leo, following his father’s orders. He grabbed the requested bottle from the rack on the kitchen counter, he took out three glasses from the cupboard. Opening the bottle up, he first poured the entire thing into a glass carafe. And then, once sufficiently pleased with the decanting, he filled each glass about a quarter full.
“Thank you,” Michael said once more, accepting the glass from his son. Holding it aloft, the three of them touched their glasses together. “To my wonderful family,” said Michael. “May we continue to prosper.”
They drank. Missy gave a half-hearted smile. When her father looked to her, however, she allowed her smile to grow. She took another sip. Despite Michael’s pronouncements, Missy was still preoccupied with the murder. It was all she could think about.
The way in which her father brushed off her concerns made Missy skeptical. She was more determined than ever to get to the bottom of this case, no matter what her father or anybody else said. Dunn still had her back. At least, Missy was hopeful that he did. He kept waffling on the issue. Something about wanting to just be a freewheeling retired guy. She didn’t get it.
Missy knew that Emperor kept close tabs on all the wineries in the region, gleaning as much information as they could in an effort to beat the competition. She also knew that there had to be some documentation about all the various real estate sales and any specifics they could get from them. Her father was almost maniacally thorough about his business. There had to be information at the winery that would point Missy in the right direction.
Under the darkness of midnight, Missy got into her car to make the very short drive over to the winery. The problem with her plan was that she wasn’t quite sure how to get into the computer systems at Emperor. But she knew someone who might have an idea.
Quickly tapping into the screen, Missy put her phone to her ear and listened to the ringing as she drove. It rang a handful of times before it went to voicemail.
“You’ve reached Gannon Dunn,” said the message in Dunn’s voice. “Leave a message.” Missy rolled her eyes and huffed as she waited for the beep.
“Dunn,” she said when it was her turn. “It’s Missy. It’s, like, midnight or something. It’s late. I’m heading over to the winery—my family’s winery—and I need your help. Give me a call when you get this.”
Missy hung up and tossed her phone to the passenger seat.
When she arrived in the winery parking lot, there were still a few cars present. That wasn’t out of the ordinary. Sometimes customers got a little
too tipsy and couldn’t drive. Other times, employees might have to leave their cars in the lot for one reason or another. Missy drove into a spot, she parked, and she hurriedly got out of the car.
As Missy walked up to an employee entrance, she reached behind her back and she felt for her pistol. She knew it was there, lodged into a small leather holster in the back of her pants, but she just wanted to check to be sure. Using her key to get inside, she immediately went to disarm the alarm as she let the door slam behind her. The alarm, however, was already off. Missy lifted an eyebrow.
She jogged through the back corridors of Emperor, and then she climbed some steps that lead to the upstairs. Missy knew that her father had a laptop, which was most likely sitting on his bedside table at that moment. Wes McMullin, however, had a desktop computer in his office and that would be a prime target. She might even get lucky and find it to already be logged in.
“I can’t believe Dunn hasn’t called back yet,” Missy grumbled as she rounded a corner and entered McMullin’s office.
Moving around the desk and preparing to sit down, Missy reached into her back pocket to find her phone. It wasn’t there.
“Fuck,” she said. “Idiot.”
Missy sighed, and she jiggled the mouse. After a few beats, the computer screen came to life. It was at a lock screen. Missy just shook her head.
“I guess I’m going back to get my phone,” Missy lamented. She dramatically pushed back from the desk and stood up. Lesson learned. Check for your gun and for your phone.
She went back the way she came, stomping down the stairs and feeling a bit pissed at herself for being so careless. Even though she knew that she was no expert in this kind of thing, it still made Missy mad that she hadn’t been thorough. The next case she investigated would go smoother. She knew that for sure.
Reaching the back corridor that would lead to the parking lot, Missy paused for a moment. She listened. She couldn’t quite place it, but she thought she had heard a strange noise echoing through the hallway. Looking around, Missy couldn’t see much. The hall was mostly dark, lit only by a few security lights near the ceiling. She listened even more intently.
Silence.
Missy breathed a sigh of relief. Just as she resumed her gait, however, a burlap sack came down over her head, tightening around her neck. Missy squealed and she struggled, kicking and punching at whatever she could until some large, strong arms wrapped around her. She continued to belt out cries for help as she was blindly carried off.
Dunn looked at his phone and saw the missed call from Missy. He looked over in bed and saw Brooke sleeping there, a cute smile on her lips. Mulling over what he should do, Dunn eventually slipped out from the covers and stood up from bed.
Brooke stirred. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw Dunn putting on his shirt. She groaned and stretched her arms out.
“Where are you going?” she asked in a groggy tone.
“I can’t sleep,” said Dunn. “I’m going to go downstairs and have a glass of water.”
“Okay,” Brooke said with a sleepy smile. She blew him a kiss with just her lips and closed her eyes.
Once Dunn was downstairs, he put his phone to his ear and listened to Missy’s message. He exhaled. Looking down into his phone screen for a moment, he tried to think of what to say. Then he began typing.
“It’s late. Brooke’s here. I’ll talk to you in the morning,” he wrote in a text. He pressed send and then he placed his phone down on the dining room table. Moving into the kitchen, he got himself a glass of water from the tap.
Some time went by. Dunn drank his water and sat at the table, occasionally checking his phone. There was no response from Missy. It just wasn’t like her. He had expected a furious text back, something about getting his ass down there and helping his partner out. Dunn waited another ten minutes, his water glass empty, and checked his phone. Still nothing.
He was beginning to worry.
Creeping back upstairs into his bedroom, Dunn slipped into his closet to get a few things. He changed out of his lounge pants and into some jeans. He put on a pair of socks. And then, a small black case caught his eye. Dunn paused as he considered it. Once the decision had been made, he opened up the case and he retrieved his gun. Dunn looked at it and shook his head. He didn’t know what he was becoming.
Looking out of his closet and into his bedroom, Dunn could see that Brooke was sleeping soundly. He walked lightly, watching her with each step, until he reached the bedroom door. Dunn paused and let his eyes linger on her. Was he an asshole? He felt like one. But that didn’t stop him from leaving.
When Dunn pulled into the parking lot of Emperor Vineyards, he spotted Missy’s car immediately and parked next to it. Stepping out of his SUV, he moved over to Missy’s sedan and looked inside of it. He saw her phone sitting there on the passenger seat and he understood. From here, he wasn’t sure what to do. He knew Missy was inside, but he wasn’t sure how he would get in there. Surely the doors would be locked. Spotting the employee door at the side of the building, he cautiously walked over to it to check it out.
Dunn reached the door and he pulled at it. It was locked. He shook his head, and he looked around.
“What the hell are you doing?” he asked himself. “This is nuts.” Compounding with the feeling of being an asshole for leaving Brooke, he now also felt like a fool. He had gotten roped into Missy’s fantasy of solving a crime and it made him feel like a naive idiot. Here he was, outside of a winery in the middle of the night, carrying a gun, plotting out how to break in. It was too much.
Just then, the door swung open and almost hit him in the face. Instead, however, he caught it in his hand and stepped back, hiding behind it. Out walked a lumbering body with a familiar face. It was Crumb.
Dunn watched in disbelief for a moment as Crumb moved toward a car, unlocked it and began searching inside for something. Why was Crumb at Emperor, especially this late at night? Fighting through the confusion, Dunn made his move, rounded the door, and leapt inside the building. The heavy door slammed shut behind him.
Crumb looked back to the door with a curious expression. It had been quite the delayed slam. He just shrugged and resumed the search in his car.
Now inside of Emperor, Dunn looked along the corridor, having no idea where to turn next. Surely, Missy was here somewhere. But Dunn had never seen this part of the winery before, and he hadn’t a clue where to look. He did know that Crumb was right behind him, however, so he would have to make his move quickly.
With a swift gait, Dunn moved down the hallway until he came upon a cracked open door. A faint light was shining through, and he opened the door up to look inside. It was a stairwell leading down. Dunn took a deep breath, and then he began running down the stairs.
Once he reached the bottom of the stairs, Dunn’s eyes lit up. The basement was huge, cavernous really, and it was lined with barrels upon barrels of what he could only assume was wine. The walls were made of stone, and huge wooden beams lined the ceiling. This basement looked nothing like Emperor did up at ground level. It looked like it was from a different time.
Dunn sped around the cellar, peeking into every little cordoned off area of wine barrels that he could, searching tirelessly for his friend. The light was dim, but it was enough for him to see his way around. He knew he didn’t have much time before he was found out, before Crumb would come lumbering down those stairs and see that Dunn had broken in, so he had to act fast. Reaching back, Dunn felt for his pistol. He hoped he wouldn’t need it.
Then, in an almost hidden area in a corner of the cellar, among stacks of barrels, Dunn found what he was looking for. Bound in a chair, with a burlap sack over her head, was a slender body he could only assume was Missy. Dunn raced to her, and he pulled the bag from her head.
At first, Missy’s face was sour but as soon as she saw Dunn she lit up.
“You came,” beamed Missy. “Dunn, you came.”
“You’re lucky I did,” he said. “What the hell is h
appening here?”
“I really got myself into a mess here, didn’t I?” said Missy with a grin.
“You think this is some kind of joke?” scoffed Dunn. “You’re tied up to a chair.”
“Yeah, but you’re here,” said Missy. “And you can untie me. Look, whoever did this is an idiot. He didn’t even search me for my pistol. Untie me so when he comes back I can put a bullet into his face.”
“Missy,” said Dunn. “The guy who did this… it’s Crumb.”
“Crumb?” repeated Missy. “Wait, what? Why is he at my family’s winery this late at night?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” said Dunn. “But the guy’s dangerous. Let’s just get out of here.”
“Are you kidding?” said Missy. “That guy is fucked. As soon as I tell my father about all this, whoa boy.”
“You sure about that?” Dunn posited.
“What?”
“You don’t think your father knows he’s here?” said Dunn. “You think Crumb just broke in? What’s he doing?”
Missy paused and she considered it.
“I don’t know,” Missy said eventually. “I’m still going to shoot him. Untie me, Dunn.”
Both Dunn and Missy heard it at the same time. The stairs leading down into the wine cellar let off a creaking sound. Looking across the vast basement, they could see Crumb making his way back down. Dunn looked to Missy and widened his eyes. She could almost read his mind.
“Don’t,” said Missy. “Just untie me right this instant.”
Dunn reached to the ground, he picked up the burlap sack, and he replaced it onto Missy’s head. Missy violently fidgeted, rocking back and forth in the chair.
“Dunn,” she said in a muffled voice. “You asshole.”
Dunn looked around and saw a dark area he could hide in, behind a barrel and not far off from Missy. He ran and ducked in, making himself scarce before Crumb’s arrival.
When Crumb did return, walking closer to Missy, Dunn could see that he was holding a black police baton. Reaching back, Dunn took his pistol out of the holster and held it with two hands, perched behind the barrel.